John McGahern

"My only concern," John McGahern once said, "is that I get the sentence right and describe my world clearly and deeply." The Country Funeral witnesses three brothers, John, Philly, and Fonsie Ryan, as they travel west from Dublin to Gloria Bog—the heart of the territory where so many of McGahern's stories take place—to attend the funeral of their uncle. Depicting...

That They May Face the Rising Sun, John McGahern's last novel, vividly brings to life a whole world and its people with insight, humour, and deep sympathy. Joe and Kate Ruttledge have come to Ireland from London in search of a different life. In passages of beauty and truth, the drama of a year in their lives and those of...

John McGahern is widely considered to be one of Ireland's greatest writers, with admirers including John Updike, Hilary Mantel, Colm Tóibín, and John Banville. Often hailed as his greatest work, Amongst Women is a poignant novel of family and togetherness. Once an officer in the Irish War for Independence, Moran is now a widower, eking out a living on a...